TSU88

His hand is in a cast. No es bueno, I would think. Conference tournament starts in 1 month

AB channeled his inner Kobe today, in their hometown of the City of Brotherly Dunks. I suspect he had this game circled on his calendar. Ok, so NE lost today, which opens up a little more room between us and them. We’re not catching C of C, and I doubt we’re catching a Hofstra. But DE & W&M are just barely ahead of us, so 3rd or 4th isn’t out of the question. One concern going forward is our incredibly shrinking bench, with Gray out now (in addition to the earlier losses of Solomon U & TJ Howard). We’re now down to 8 scholarship players. While I haven’t been the biggest fan of Gray, his minutes spelled our starters & he played good D, with an infrequent good game on offense. Now, our 8-man rotation includes several guys who aren’t going to score much (Dottin, Tunstall, Thompson), 1 guy who is extremely inconsistent on offense (Timberlake) & one guy who picks up 3 silly fouls in pregame warmups (Sanders). 5 conference games left. Would be great to hold serve at home (Elon & W&M) & at least win 1 of the final 3 road games (JMU, NE & Hofstra). My prediction: 10-8 final conference record.

According to what I’ve seen online, this McElhaney kid had PWO offers from Ohio State, UVA & BC, for whatever that’s worth

Doubtful we beat Hofstra on the road (is that our last regular season game? If so, even more doubtful we beat them on senior day). NE is nothing special this year, but I wouldn’t bet the ranch we beat them on the road either. Agree that most important thing is to finish in top 6, and thus avoid PIG

Too much Riller. When he drained the 3 at the end of the 1st half, I sensed we were going to be in trouble in the 2nd half. He scored half of their points in the 1st half. Glad he’s played his last game at SECU. He’s been around so long, I swear he must be 30 years old. I think we can beat them, but there’s very little margin for error. I would not want to face Riller again, in the conference tournament. With all that being said about Riller, their supporting cast came up big in the 2nd half. If Miller doesn’t get that incredibly lucky bounce on his 3 with about 3 minutes left, we might have pulled it off. Bottom line, their seniors (Riller, Miller & McManus) outplayed our seniors (Fobbs, Sanders, Tunstall). If Sanders continues to pick up stupid 2nd half fouls (which he’s done 2 games in a row) we’re going to struggle. Props to Gibson. He’s stepped up his game as the conference season has gone on, which is exactly what you look for out of a freshman Big road trip next week-Delaware is right on our heels, then Drexel. I’d love a sweep, but gotta get at least one of them.

Opening game at SECU was meaningful, only from a ceremonial basis. The Temple game was nice, but not terribly meaningful in the long view. So arguably, tomorrow’s game is one of the 3 biggest in the SECU era

Where does this game rate in terms of meaningful games at SECU?

That guy who sings the anthem is GREAT!!

Only blemish on the evening was Kurk Lee being MIA. He would have gotten a massive ovation, I would think. Was his absence tied to some bitterness over the fact we didn’t recruit his kid? Anyway, if you told me before the game that Fobbs & Betrand would only combine for what, I think 21 points, I’d have said “uh-oh,” but this really was a team effort. Sanders with the double-double, Tunstall with 1 of his best games this year, Gray drained a few 3’s & Dottin 2-2 from 3! Timberlake was 4-6 from the field-when he gets out on the break, it can be highlight reel time. Mat has said it before, but with his athleticism, he should drive more & shoot less 3’s (though he did drain at least 1 tonight). Then there’s Gibson with 6 assists. Anybody know what the attendance was tonight? Good student turnout & good atmosphere in the lower bowl. This sets up a huge game Saturday vs C of C, in front of what should be a large, and hopefully raucous, crowd. Let’s get 8 in a row!!

Can someone forward 2012’s suggestions to marketing?

Preach TuTigers2012!! Perfect storm-team is playing well, no competition from football games and students back, as of today. Add in that the weather forecast isn’t bad for either this Thursday or Saturday, & Saturday is Autism Awareness game (I think). No reason we shouldn’t have 3K this Thursday & even more Saturday, especially if we win Thursday. TU marketing must pull out all the stops, no ifs ands or buts.

How many students live on campus, 5-6K? 500 students attending Thursday night would only require 10% of those who live on campus to show up. You’re right about the litany of excuses, but I don’t want to hear it this time. Marketing department, just do it!!!

I couldn’t agree with you more regarding the need to market these next 2 games like crazy. We have over 2X as many students as W&M. There’s no excuse why there shouldn’t be a minimum of 500 students at Thursday’s game. No excuses, just make it happen!!!

W&M had 1100 students at the game today. They also had a nice promotion, where their HC pledged a donation of $5 per student to cancer research. Now, with the momentum we’ve got, and our students back on campus (I believe spring semester starts this Monday) why can’t we get 500 students on Thursday night? Frankly, I’d like to see 1,000 students, but I’d settle for 500. If we can’t get a big turnout Thursday (and Saturday, assuming we win Thursday) I for one will be sorely disappointed

Winning cures all ills. This isn’t rocket science or brain surgery; we’re hitting shots during this winning streak; we weren’t hitting shots during the losing streak. I’m coming around to thinking we’re capable of beating all 3 of the teams that we lost to to start the conference season. Will we? Time will tell. Meanwhile, I’m going to enjoy the 6-game winning streak and hope for a big crowd Thursday when we go for 7 in a row. Will there be criticism on here next time we lose? Probably. Dizzying highs and depressing lows-such is the fate of the passionate fan. Me, I’m more than happy to eat crow. For now, let’s enjoy the ride.

Biggest W in the Skerry era, IMHO. That’s W&M’s 1st home L all season. Obvious majors kudos to Gibson. Wow, what a game he had, with the scoring & lack of TO’s. Nice job by our inside guys in out rebounding W& M & holding their twin towers to 30 combined points. You touched on a key-get one of them in foul trouble. Great job on D in making them chuck up contested 3’s, resulting in them shooting like 20% on 3’s for the game. Betrand & Fobbs continue to be good for about 35 points a night. Really good to see Gibson & Sanders as viable options to help ease the load on the big 2. Very pleased to see us hold onto a lead at the end on the road in front of a large crowd. Students are back on campus, as spring semester starts Monday. With the momentum we’re on, we really need to market the hell out of these upcoming home games. Let’s get 3K+ and let’s get a boatload of students.

W&M better strike while the iron is hot, because the “twin towers” are both seniors, so the Tribe turns back into a pumpkin 🎃 in March

Didn’t he have a triple double vs us at home last year, where he scored 30+ points, mainly on 30 foot 3’s?

Just so we’re clear, I’m not predicting we win the regular season conference title. My goals are much simpler; win this Thursday and roll into W&M on a 5 game winning streak. If I had to guess where we’ll finish in conference, I’d say somewhere between 4th-6th place. I mean really, who knows? This is all guesswork. As UNCW & Drexel showed us this past weekend, there’s not a team in this conference which isn’t capable of beating any other team in the conference any given night. And that makes it more interesting, IMHO. For us to be taken seriously, we need to beat W&M, Hofstra, C of C & NE. We have 5 games left vs those teams. I’m not super optimistic we win more than 1 or 2 of those games, but hey, the games aren’t played on paper, so we’ll see

Winning in the regular season is relevant in several ways. First, you want to avoid playing in the play-in games. Second, winning in the regular season should provide a degree of confidence as far as the tournament goes. But, other than that, a successful regular season record takes a back seat to the conference tournament (other than a possible NIT bid)

Kudos to Mat for the Stealers Wheel reference. I looked up AT’s numbers last year. He averaged 3.5ppg. DT is averaging 4.5ppg, so, at least offensively, DT has morphed into AT. I’m really hoping we go into W&M 5-3 & then pull off an upset to go 6-3 & come home vs UNCW on a 6-game winning streak. With all that being said, it still comes down to 3 days in March. We could win out the rest of the way, and it won’t make a bit of difference, in a 1-bid conference, if we lose in the conference tournament.

Now, let’s get a QB

Ran for 3,500 yards and 57 TD’s in high school. Not sure what his Fork Union numbers were. Gotta love the size. If he’s really a 4.5 40 guy, that’s a nice combo of size and speed. Kinda surprised he didn’t get snagged by the likes of JMU or Liberty, but hopefully their loss is our gain. Now we’ve got Shane, Young, Folley & Feliz-Platt at RB. Would still like to get 1 more RB, either HS or FBS transfer

Wow, didn’t realize UNCW beat NE. Also, our W over Drexel is looking more impressive. I’ll be the 1st to admit I wrote the season off after losing the 1st 3 conference games. Now we’ve won 4 in a row. I don’t care if 2 of those 4 W’s are vs UNCW & JMU (mystery to me how a team with the talent they have is 1-6 in conference). I’m still not sure I have a bead on this team. Let’s see where we are after the next 2 (road) games. If we’re 5-4 at the halfway point, I’d see us finishing between 4th-6th. OTOH, if we come home 6-3, well, that’s another story. I like the “dynamic duo” of Fobbs & Betrand (after seeing a summer practice, I predicted Betrand would be the most improved returning player on the team). Sanders isn’t going to be a 15ppg guy, but 10 & 7 boards, with his passing ability, would be nice. I’m not a huge fan of Gray (I think his outside shot is pretty bad) but he can contribute occasionally inside, and with his D. Timberlake is frustrating. He throws in the odd 10-15 point game, and I think he’s about to become a consistent scoring threat, then he reverts to a game like today, where he shoots 1-4, missing several wide open 3’s. As for the PG’s, I think the Gibson/Dottin tandem is not bad. Not great, but not bad. Don’t have the stats in front of me, but they’re probably averaging about 8-9 ppg, 3-4 assists, and generally not too many TO’s. Bottom line: as Datres posted above, if we play like we did in the 1st halves of the Delaware & Drexel games, we can beat anybody in the conference. But, if we play like we did against NE & Vermont, we can lose to anybody in the conference. I’m skeptical that the inconsistency this team demonstrates (not from game-to-game, but within individual games) will result in 3 straight W’s come conference tournament time, but I’d love to be proven wrong

I thought Sanders was the key today. When he was stationed at the foul line in the 2nd half, and the offense went through him, we got good looks and built the lead. He’s an underrated passer. Him, Fobbs & Betrand is a nice triple threat. Didn’t get much out of anyone else today, but fortunately we didn’t need to. I knew JMU would make a run after we jumped out by 21, but it was frustrating to watch Banks drain one 3 after another. I dunno, how about doubling him? Great foul shooting today was the other key. 20-21 speaks for itself. Nice to go on the road with momentum. Need to avoid laying an egg vs Elon, & go into W&M at 5-3 in conference.